


Changing Lanes

by Queer_Queen



Series: Queen Queen's Not-so-Queer Movie Villain Bodice Rippers [1]
Category: The Last Stand (Movie)
Genre: F/M, bodice ripper, super niche
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23240419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queer_Queen/pseuds/Queer_Queen
Summary: Agent Ellen Richards was worried about the prison transport, so many things could go wrong, the prisoner escaping, and taking her with him? Not at all expected.
Series: Queen Queen's Not-so-Queer Movie Villain Bodice Rippers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670962





	Changing Lanes

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware this is super niche and I expect nobody to read this.

Agent Ellen Richards breathed out and glanced at her watch, it was nearly 4am, on a Saturday. Usually she’d still be sleeping, if this was a usual day she would have woken at 6am and prepared herself a high calorie breakfast, before checking her computer – with bagel in hand – and seeing if anyone had sent her emails for either of her jobs. After that she’d grab her bag with her work clothes, and head downstairs to bike to FBI headquarters, once there she’d hit the on site gym before finally showering and officially going to work.

But, of course, today wasn’t a usual day. Yesterday she had been shipped from Richmond to Las Vegas, with no warnings from her superior officers. Last night Ellen had been finally briefed by John (Agent John Bannister, operational head of the narcotics department of the FBI), about a top secret, under the radar mission. The movement of the drug cartel boss Gabriel Cortez to federal death row. And she would be the head of the Tech division, one of the four division heads that were needed for any complete mission. For this mission John would be operational head, David McKay was in charge of the transportation (while this sounds boring it meant that he had to plan the routes, network with the police, get the permits for unmarked police vehicles, etc.), Ellen was in charge of the tech division, and Agent Phil Hayes would be the liaison for the State Troopers.

Sometime between now and when the mission was first outlined Ellen registered that all the division heads were friends of John, and that John was committing a severe operational misconduct because of that. McKay was the most senior of them all, under John, and even then he had only taken six high profile missions, Phil was more experienced in disaster relief then movement of prisoners, and Ellen herself was extremely inexperienced in the field, especially in comparison to the other three. Hell, even the Judge (Thomas Law) that approved the mission had been compromised because he is a good friend of John’s. A more major thought was John’s bias towards Cortez, which – if he was not very careful – could compromise the safety of the mission. Of course, it wasn’t like he didn’t have a good reason for his bias.

\------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- 

** _1AM, Las Vegas, FBI Locker Room, FBI Headquarters_ **

_ Ellen (and presumably the rest of the team) had been ordered to change her sleep cycle to keep her energy up and now she was at a black site in Las Vegas, prepping for their mission. Ellen had prepped her division and spoken to both her second-in-command, and the ground leader. _

_ So she sat, in what looked to be an old janitor’s room converted into a locker room, with the other division heads milling around her. She could feel h_ _er adrenaline beginning to rush through her system, preparing both her body and mind for the hours to come. _

_ She was vaguely aware that John had finished speaking with his supervisor, Judge Law, and the prison’s warden. That Phil had finished prepping the state troopers and moved onto team firearm checks. And that McKay was still worrying about the route, the possible traffic and any of the checkpoints they would be travelling through. _

_ Ellen opened her eyes from where she was slumped against her own locker when John began to speak, “First time,” he paused, as if gathering breath and Ellen really looked at John, he looked older, standing against one of the bare walls, staring into the middle distance, “I heard the name Gabriel Cortez I was working a joint task force south of the border. I was partnered with … the one, honest cop in Mexico City, Diego Morales.” _

_ He took a shuddering breathe and Ellen realized she recognized that name, John continued in a tone that felt ripe with anger, “He’d just gotten out of the academy, didn’t take shit from nobody, including me, so,” and past that, past his fatigue and weariness of an old cop, “so one night Cortez, he walks into this night club and this girl catches his eye.” She could see something else, “Walks over to her, and uh,” something excited, “says he wants her to come back to his place, and he’s gonna fuck her brains out.” And something potentially dangerous. _

_ Phil turns from where he was double checking their firearms, “Nice pick up line,” he says, grinning, but John and Ellen could see that his smile was hollow. That begins to happen to the more experienced officers, Ellen was mildly surprised he was developing his so soon. _

_ John continues, looking both Phil and Ellen in the eye, “You gotta understand, Cortez is third generation cartel boss” he takes a sip of his horrible coffee, “believes he’s untouchable. So when this girl tries to protest, tell him that, she’s gonna be married in a week,” she can now identify the emotion kindling in his eyes, “Cortez, he just laughs, slaps her in the face, it doesn’t matter to Cortez that this girl’s fiancée is sitting right there, so when the fiancée gets up and tells Cortez that he’s a cop, Cortez he just laughs louder,” hatred, “harder,” a need for revenge, “Nobody stands up to him. But Diego Morales, he did, so Cortez, he kills him right there on the spot. Pistol whipped him to death. Right in front of his fiancée.” much too much emotion. _

_ “You’re too emotional, John.” Ellen whispered. She was curled up around her own coffee, watching John. Both he and Phil looked at her, she could tell Phil was agreeing with her, and John looked at her with anger. _

_ John wasn’t furious, he was too experienced to allow himself to explode at Ellen, “So you’re on his side then? That monster deserves to die in jail.” His emotions were wild against his face. _

_ She went for placating, not wanting him to compromise himself any further, “John, you know I think he’s a horrible man,” here she paused, assessing his emotions, “but you are too emotionally invested in this case. You need to be careful, because you are very close to being seen as a bias officer.” She could see his ire cooling, and here she added a cheeky tone, hoping to placate him further, “I am ordering you to not get suspended after this case. I need you to help me with future missions.” _

_ She glanced at Phil and grinned before continuing, mock whispering at John, “And Phil will need help too, he’s just too macho to say.” _

_ Here she saw an honest smile spread across his face, before she was tapped on the head by Phil, “Hey Ellen, you know I don’t need the old man’s help.” _

_ John blew out, “No disrespecting a superior officer.” Here Ellen and Phil exchanged a meaningful look, and John growled, “Oh shut up.” _

_ Before Phil could get out a retort the door opened and McKay walked in, “We’re ready.” _

_ Immediately the joking emotions bled out of the room but Ellen could see that some of John’s anxiety – at the very least – was released. _

\------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- 

This mission was turning into a real and true shit show, Cortez’s escape was shocking, not only to her a practical rookie, but even to John and McKay. A giant magnet had lifted their prisoner transport vechile from the street up onto a building. That kind of fuck up would go down in FBI legends. But it was unlikely any member of this team would get out of this with their jobs.

Ellen hurried after McKay as these thoughts flew through her mind, John was likely to be ordered to retire, and she had no doubt that she and the rest of the team would be facing disciplinary action … if not full on job termination, she should have said something. In front of her McKay turned down the alley and she automatically followed. She _ knew _ he was compromised, and she _ knew _ he had pulled strings for this mission … she had assumed the worst case scenario was Cortez dying in transport, but now with him ** _free_ **. 

They were all so so fucked. And the night wasn’t even over yet.

She had her short wave radio out ready to receive or transmit information, but so far all she had been doing was quietly updating McKay every time an update came in, “Anything new?” she glanced up at McKay who was watching her.

She shook her head, “Nothing, just more runners.” McKay nodded and continued down the alley, firearm ready. Ellen glanced around and saw the alley’s conspicuously new security camera, especially considering the age of the building it was attached to. She reflected with some consolation that at least she would be able to pull the footage in a couple of hours. Even in her head Ellen knew that Cortez was long gone. They caught him once … they wouldn’t be catching him again. 

They continued down the alley, more slowly, McKay leading and Ellen following behind him, periodically glancing behind her. Everything was so quiet. The sound of a car starting up, startled her, draeing her out of her deeper thoughts and helping her to focus on the present. There was still a chance that they’d catch Cortez. Every member of the team had to be diligent. 

Ellen kept her eyes peeled, assessing every shadow they passed, looking for signs of disturbance or movement. But so far nothing, the night was clear, and with no clouds in the sky the moon helped to illuminate their path. And so far they hadn’t seen a single soul, it made sense - they were nowhere near the strip - instead in one of the more industrial areas, with a couple office buildings and hotels scattered around. 

The sound of the car drew nearer and Ellen, with a new state of mind, hurried to catch up with McKay. He had stopped, waiting for movement or some kind of signal from John. Ellen once again glanced up at the buildings that bracketed them, eyes catching on the security cameras as they slowly rotated away from them. She would definitely get good footage of her and McKay’s absolute failure of a search. 

As McKay continue on signalling all clear, Ellen’s eye remained on the security camera, it was strange, the camera should have rotated back them by now.

The squeal of tires came from far to close behind her, she attempted to dodge to the side and was clipped by the white sedan as it drove full on at McKay.

\------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------------------- 

**4:09AM, Las Vegas, Alley**

The force of the car’s hit tumbled her back against the brick of the alley, her firearm clattering out of her grip along with her shortwave radio. Gun shots followed by a thud signalled that McKay was down, but Ellen was focused on scrambling for her radio. Next to her the car stopped as she finally grasped it.

“John, we need backup-” but the rest of her words were lost when a shoe kicked the radio from her hands, clipping her cheekbone as it went. 

Blinking stars from her eyes Ellen looked up and saw Cortex, crouched over her, smiling like some terrible monster. Or a heavily armed psychopathic cartel boss in a fancy suit.

“Ellen, we are coming, hang in there.” Cortez’s smile dropped off his face as John’s voice crackled from the speaker of the radio, the corner of his lip twitching as he stood. She tried to keep her eyes trained on him, she didn’t want to look away from her own death, but he moved away, one of his militia coming forward toting a terrifying looking sub-machine gun. 

Defying her expectations, the woman crouched down and dragged her up, pulling her into a standing position to watch as Cortez shot McKay. 

She watched blankly, as his brains splattered out of the ground.

And then Cortez was back, smiling at her, like some kind of predator. 

Cortez’s smile became more wolf-like,The wind whipped through the alleyway and Ellen shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold. Turning to the group he addressed them in rapid fire spanish, “Load up. The pigs will be here soon.” And Ellen was dragged into the backseat of the car. By now she could feel her adrenaline wearing off and the pain coming in, worse and worse with every breath. 

Past Cortez sliding into the front seat, through the windshield, Ellen could see McKay’s body. Her eyes darted up, and she found herself staring into Cortez’s. He was watching her. He seemed to be doing that a lot. Ellen shivered at the possible implications, remembering John’s story in the locker room.

She needed to … focus, she needed to do something. McKay was dead. She was next. 


End file.
